Here is a picture of me just before we warmed up in the chapel.
My children, Michelle, Allison, Jeffrey, and Andrew passed out programs for the concert.
My dear friend Esther, (who is a master whole wheat bread baker), came to listen to the concert.
Michelle captured a couple of 30 second video clips of the concert on her camera. Click on the image to listen!
I went up to Ron after the performance and snapped this shot of us together, only catching half of my head in the photo. Mike Williams, President of the Choral Festival (who also serves as Stake President of the Boulder Colorado Stake of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) was in the picture. The happiness of this moment really comes through clear. We were all so pleased with the final outcome!
Here is another Video Clip of the Performance!
Here is a picture of me with my children after the concert.
My dear friend Kent came to see the performance. He is the organist of the Colorado Mormon Chorale and a member of my ward. Recently he accompanied me as I sang the solo A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief in our wards Sacrament Meeting. Kent is an accomplished and credentialed organist in the Denver/Boulder area. It was fun to have him in the audience!
In this final video clip you can see me standing in the upper left corner of the choir. This clip was my favorite. Joy and Delight! Here is the Blog entry I wrote about the Requiem a couple of weeks ago.
This requiem was a follow up to last years version of the Mozart Requiem, which the Festival performed in memory of 9-11. With the fifth year anniversary today, the festival chose the Brahms Requiem to share with our community to commemorate the slaughter that took place on 9-11. The festival president said these great works were written for those who were sorrowful after the death of loved ones. I suppose as Americans we all feel sadness and grief remembering that terrible day.
I will always remember what I was doing on that day.
We had kept the children home from school that morning because we had planned to go to the airport to visit my sister Emily on a stopover at DIA. Emily was traveling from Utah to Italy. She had spent two months in the Missionary Training Center, and was now on her way to Italy to serve a mission for the church we attend.
We had a quiet morning of breakfast, scripture reading, prayers, and I had prepared a picnic lunch to take with us to share with Emily during her two hour layover. We never listen to the news or the radio in the morning, so we were absolutely clueless until we reached the airport. Just as we were pulling up to Denver International Airport, dozens of policemen were outside putting up barricades to the entryway of the airport. Paul rolled down the window of our car and asked one of the policemen what was going on. He said "the airport is shutting down until we figure out who bombed us".
Paul and I just looked at each other, and then he turned on the radio. As we drove towards the children's school we listened to the radio. We dropped the older children off at school, and then I went home to spend the whole day listening to Fox News and trying to locate my sister. Her plane was in the air during the attack, but they grounded it before she reached Denver. She was fine, and eventually made it to Italy to serve an honorable mission, but it was a very worrisome experience for me.
The next day I kept all four children at home and we spent the day updating our 72 hour kits, which had not been touched since 1999. It helped us to have something proactive to do, rather than melting down into terrorized inactivity and apathy.
I did not lose anyone I knew personally on 9-11, but Barbara Olsen had been one of my favorite television conservative commentators, and she died in the plane that hit the pentagon.
I'd like to dedicate this post to all of the families and friends of those who died on 9-11 and also to all of the babies that will be born in the weeks, months, and years ahead. May they be gently welcomed into a world that is eager to raise them in the most natural, holistic, peaceful way possible. A couple years ago I threw out the idea that a terrorist comes from a womb that has been terrorized during pregnancy. When mothers are beaten, neglected, impoverished, starved, and live a life so filled with misery that they kill their daughters to save them from living a similar life, we can almost be certain terrorists being formed in those wombs.
When the women of the world are ALL cherished, properly nourished, and babies are born gently and holistically, then we will start to experience the eternal millennial peace that the Prophet Isaiah promised is the future for our world. Zion is just around the corner, we just have to believe it, keep the faith, and come with singing and rejoicing unto ZION!